nealeST

That pretty much puts a date on it then…

This is great. Enjoyed reading through all your progress. It will be amazing 🤩

Not the easiest puzzle…insane amount of detail in that crowd not helped by candle light and out of date reading glasses….I was actually there last April…briefly…

Nice! Thanks. I’ve only ever been past the bridge at the entrance never in…

I’m considering this history, I’m guessing 1990’s. My kids bought me a 500 piece jigsaw puzzle from a charity shop for Christmas. Terrific, I’d given up my phone for the week and made a start Boxing Day. My wife took over proceedings the following day and puzzle swiftly solved. I don’t know the location? Anyone? Maybe the date? No it doesn’t say on the box.

And another 4 I have more but got to reduce file sizes…

Stirling Moss used to say that when his professional driving career ended he was faced with finding a profession that people with no qualifications could apply for. He found two options, being a member of parliament or an estate agent….thankfully he chose neither and continued to make his living as a living legend….

Sounds like you are happy with your arrangement. At 25% than a local marina you are on a winner. Dredging sounds like a serious drawback though. I’m thinking well into the future…imagining I could find a house on the canal and rent it out whilst I go off and live aboard…with the security of a land base to return to when I get too old and not necessarily give up my boat….

Probably explains why you don’t see so many actual boats then. Thanks for the info.

Ok that’s interesting thanks. So find a property nearest a band 1… gives me something to think about. Presumably you only pay whilst your boat is tied up there? If you head off to cruise half the year?

As there are plenty of houses with gardens that end on the side of canals I’m curious to know how much C&RT charge you to moor up on the end of your own land? Many properties I’ve seen even have their own landing with Armco and suitable provision for a boat. Not many seem to have the actual boat though. Replies much appreciated.

I recommend checking out ‘Living on a narrowboat’ hosted by Paul Smith. He has written 1000’s of short articles on the subject and if you like you can book a day with him. He will talk you through everything, you’ll drive his 62ft boat, go through locks and turn it around. It’s a brilliant day. I’ve done it…he has 200 days a year when he’s doing this…plenty of interest….he doesn’t need me necessarily recommending him either. ABC offer one way moves at short notice. I get them weekly in my inbox. Always very tempted. Works out at around £100 a day for often a 6- 8 berth boat. Not sure you could do it cheaper? Out of season, offer running right now for December still.

I think you are in a better place to start with if your reasons are along the lines of I love being outdoors especially in winter in the rain and blustery wind. I enjoy constantly seeing changing landscape at a slow pace. I have an overwhelming desire to be nomadic and just can’t stand the thought of spending years and years in the same place. Am self employed and don’t need to be fixed to any particular location. I accept it will be just as expensive as the running the costs of a flat or small house and saving money isn’t my main priority . I’m very resourceful and enjoy adapting to all kinds of situations which can even potentially be injurious to my health. I might be back later with a bunch more…I think my basic point is you want the lifestyle. One other thing I’d like to mention is that the aesthetics of traditional narrowboats and canal architecture really speaks to me. The canals call to me….being near canals makes me happy…if I’m on a boat or not. Can’t explain that one….

Yep, I much prefer to use the middle of the canal but some none hire boats I have encountered whilst exercising the same preference neglect the mandate that vessels that meet head on, should both steer to starboard (to the right) and pass each other Port to Port (or left hand side to left hand side). Or is it ‘cos I is a hire boater?

What a list of films! A treasure trove! I just watched Painted Boats, very watchable…the scenes with children are very charming…reminds me of an almost forgotten Ealing Film the ‘The Magnet’ from 1950. Thanks for the link to your site. I shall be working my way through that list. Incidentally, I came across ‘the Bargee’ with Harry H Corbett on Swedish Netflix retitled ‘Casanova of the Canals’ 😄. I’m sure lots of people on here are very familiar with that one, worth remembering that films are often retitled for other markets…I thought almost an embryonic theme between Painted Boats and The Bargee…definitely a few seeds were sown in the earlier film.

Great, just checked that seems to work. Shall enjoy that later 😊

I’d be wary of dismissing all hire boaters as inexperienced. True, people like me have start somewhere…(I’m not the one driving on the wrong side of the canal as I’ve witnessed privately owned boats on occasion)…some people hire boats for decades.

Can’t find it on YouTube. 🙁Can it be streamed? DVD’s are clutter these days…

That seems to be for an Ealing Film I’d never heard of….a bit of Googling finds a beautiful set of prints taken for publicity view them here. Lovely stuff https://www.studiocanalstore.co.uk/painted-boats-1945/

Interesting, never seen this before. I just watched it after reading your post. Thanks! 52 years on…he makes a strong point…town planners completely turned their backs on the canals, as though they just wanted to forget and erase the memory of how the towns came about. Some hideous contemporary architecture presented in the film though so just as well on reflection they left well alone. I hope they are pulling those eyesores down now in those towns ….luckily they never had the cash in Liverpool to do too much damage…and some of the worst 60’s stuff has been bulldozed. They wanted to fill the Albert Dock in, demolish the warehousing and build a skyscraper….

I'm also scientifically challenged and I'm not bothering to google anything. For two and half decades I have felled and chopped Silver Birch, Spruce, Ash and Pine. I currently have a huge amount of Elm seasoning for next year all this winter that was chopped before midsummer. I can share with you that all the above combust at different rates, have different densities and certainly look and smell different. Silver Birch is my absolute favourite, is nice dense wood with fine grain. Pine goes like a rocket, can be quite sappy even when seasoned and is rated anecdotally as being good for clearing out your chimney as it burns fast. Silver Birch is a slow burner but the Elm wood is hard as nails and burns the slowest I've seen. Overall silver birch burns optimally with loads of heat output. As mentioned I always chop, by which I mean split the wood before midsummer and it drys outside until August where upon it is moved and stacked neatly for air ventilation in a purpose built wood shed. It remains there all winter until the following Autumn when, as per tradition and for countless centuries of practise the wood is now seasoned and ready to go. Not being an expert I'm not going to disagree with generations of people who have done this for a lifetime, I just follow suit. The stuff I've seen in petrol stations and in bargain stores in plastic bags looks that people take home to burn whilst they have their gas fired central heating running in the background feels nothing like it should. The fact that it is heated to dry it out means that energy that could be stored in the wood has been forced out leaving you with something combustable but very short term ie it will burn fast...just like chipboard or even cardboard. I'm sure the text on the plastic wrapper is convincing in its claims about how much better it is to for-go the time honoured way of seasoning wood but as far as I can see the difference between the two is vast and I'm quite happy to make my own mind about that. I am suspicious in general of things that are processed and claim to be better.....

Late to the thread, missed the photos. It’s not a Morso. Serious amount of ash going on there!

If you are using Morso stove you need to keep the door shut once lit. You are going around in a circle with it open and it’s consuming far too much fuel. The stove is designed to have the door shut and the vent only partially open when it’s underway. You can control the draw of the air into the fire by just a quarter of a turn. The top vent is rarely open. On the stove I had the thread was deliberately short only allowing for a slight opening. Use lots of kindling…stack it like a 'Jenga’ house and light scrunched newspaper. (3 Sheets). Let the kindling burn as fierce as possible and catch it once you have a really nice hot glow and knock it down. Now add your wood and coal…it should be really hot in there. You will have lit the kindling by having the door open a crack, no more than half an inch. The catch allows you to keep the door ajar. The kindling will roar whilst you have the door ajar and you are aiming for max heat. I always had fire brick in my Morso on the back and sides. It holds the heat and keeps the stove very hot once it’s going. I have had another variety of cast iron stove without fire brick…a lot more hungry for fuel. It takes a while for the stove to get to its working temp so be patient. Once it’s set up you will be able to keep it going constantly and maintain the fire by careful adjustment to the bottom vent. surely someone at the marina can help you out? if it’s a Morso I can promise you people in Sweden heat the whole of the downstairs of a 70 sq metre timber clad house with these stoves…in minus 15-20 degs. it’s definitely up to the job. your chimney should be clean. I’m sceptical about wood burning on boats. You need a lot of it and ideally it should be dry stored for a year before you burn it….you have space for that on a boat? The stuff they sell in plastic bags in petrol stations here in the UK is rubbish. If it’s been kiln dried the energy has been sucked out if it. It’s purely for effect…not much heat to be had. sorry for the long reply and better luck with your heating.

I witnessed an ambulance in attendance to a couple who had been pulled out the L&L at the top of the Stanley Dock flight in Liverpool some weeks ago. Luckily weather was still freakishly warm. The lady had toppled in on her mobility scooter and the husband had jumped in to rescue. The C&RT were just about to go home when the accident happened and phoned the ambulance. They were kept busy fishing out various belongings of the couple with a long fishing net after the event. It made me wonder how many such accidents occur? Presumably the lady in the scooter was in the habit of making a journey along the towpath. It was very close to the Eldonian Village.

Canals, beautiful but dangerous and perhaps more so to none boaters.